1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sealant compositions and methods which are particularly useful in detecting movement between adjoining surfaces. More particularly, the present invention relates to paint-type products which can be used to detect tampering with secured equipment, such as utility meters.
2. The Prior Art
In a wide variety of settings it is desirable to detect movement between two adjoining surfaces. This is particularly true when there is a desire to secure a piece of equipment, but it may also be true in other situations such as when it is necessary to maintain a particular setting or calibration on a piece of equipment. In order to detect whether a piece of equipment has been disturbed or tampered with, it is often desirable to apply to the equipment means capable of detecting tampering or movement. For example, a perennial need in the utility industry has been the need to detect when utility facilities have been tampered with or disturbed.
A particularly serious problem in the utility industry relates to the diversion, such as by theft, of utility service. Millions of dollars each year are lost because electric, gas, water, and telephone service is diverted and used, but no compensation for such use is paid. The incidents of utility theft have increased rapidly over the last several years with the relatively rapid increase in the cost of utility service, particularly electric and gas service.
It has been found by utility companies that customers of all types have on occasion attempted to divert utility service. Individual customers of all descriptions and at all economic levels, as well as commercial and industrial establishments, have attempted to divert service.
Diversion and theft of service seriously impacts utility companies financially. For example, gas distribution and transmission companies typically find that approximately one and one half percent (11/2%) of their gas supply is "lost and unaccounted for." This figure can at times reach as high as three percent (3%) of gas supplies. Even at the 11/2% level, however, lost and unaccounted for gas represents many millions of dollars each year. Furthermore, it is known that a significant portion of this gas is gas which is intentionally diverted or stolen.
Diverted utility service can also represent a very serious safety hazard. Diversion of gas or electric service by a person not adequately trained in the handling of those types of energy can easily cause damage to the person diverting the service, as well as to other individuals and to property. Each year, numerous explosions and fires are caused by natural gas which has been improperly diverted by an unknowledgeable individual. Electric power and even water can also cause serious personal injury and property damage, if handled improperly.
As a result, utility companies have gone to great lengths to attempt to stop or prevent service diversion. Utility service personnel are specially trained to detect tampering with utility facilities. Many companies have hired specially trained investigators and attorneys to locate individuals who are diverting service, to prosecute them for theft, and to attempt to collect from them the value of the services they have taken.
All of these measures clearly are taken at great cost to utility companies. However, in view of the many millions of dollars in service diverted each year, and the serious safety hazard caused by diversion of utility service, such steps are considered justifiable.
In addition to employing extensive staffs, utility companies and others seeking to secure equipment, have developed and used various devices in order to prevent or detect tampering with facilities. These devices have been in use since at least the early part of this century and have taken a variety of forms. One of the oldest devices, but one which is now regaining favor within the utility industry, consists of a simple piece of wire with a soft metal, such as lead, fittingly connected to one end.
The wire can be threaded through various parts of the meter, such as lock nuts and connectors, which have holes which can accommodate such a wire. The free end of the wire is then run back into a space within the lead fitting and a special tool presses the fitting to secure both ends of the wire within the lead fitting. The tool may be constructed so as to leave a particular design on the fitting which is not easily duplicated.
Several problems have been encountered in the use of such a device. One problem, which is a problem shared by all existing devices, is that the presence of the wire is readily detectable by a potential tamperer. Since the wire is obvious, a person intending to tamper with a meter can easily make plans to deal with the wire. For example, it may be possible to cut the wire near the lead fitting and later replace the wire within the fitting so that the meter tampering is not obvious.
It is also necessary to thread such wires through all attachments and connections which could potentially be removed. Since some of these attachments are not designed to allow the positioning of the wire through them, the meter will still be susceptible to tampering even though the potential options as to how to do the tampering may be limited.
An additional problem is that this type of wire connector is readily available; this allows a potential tamperer to remove one such wire, and when the modification of the meter is complete, to replace it with another similar wire in its place. As a result of these problems, other means of securing meters have been developed.
Another existing means commonly used by the utility industry is a tamper indicator collar which can be placed around the main connector nuts which help attach a gas line to the meter. The collars generally consist of two nearly identical parts which can be interlocked by snap-catches located on each part of the collar. Once the collar is put in place around the connector nuts, it cannot be removed without breaking the collar. In order for a person to tamper with the connector nuts of the meter, he would be required to break the collars, thus alerting a meter reader that meter tampering had taken place.
Many of the same problems pointed out with reference to the wire remain in using this type of collar. The collar is readily observable by the tamperer, thus allowing him to design alternative means of meter tampering. Collars are only designed for certain sizes of nuts, such as the main connector nuts. Therefore, nuts and connections of different sizes must either be left exposed or be secured by an alternative means.
A serious drawback in using wires and collars is the cost of securing a meter. As mentioned above, in order to adequately secure a meter, it is typically necessary to use both wires and collars. A typical residential meter would require at least two collars and one wire. The cost, including labor, to seal a meter in the field using two collars and one wire has recently been estimated to be in excess of $3.50.
When it is realized that there are approximately forty-five million gas meters and forty million gas regulators, together with an additional sixty million electric and forty million water meters, in the United States alone, it can be seen that the investment to secure a significant portion of these meters using existing devices would be astronomical. Numerous other types of devices have been used in an attempt to secure utility meters. These devices include simply placing the meter into a locked box. These boxes may have locks which must be opened using a special tool. Other devices simply include placing a padlock on a portion of the meter or adding tubes, rods and pipes in such a manner as to discourage tampering.
The problems discussed above remain in all of these attempts to make meters, and other equipment, tamper resistant. As mentioned, one primary consideration is cost. Each meter would cost $3.50 or more to secure using typically known devices. When considered from the point of view of even a small to intermediate size utility company, the investment could be on the order of several million dollars. Even if such an investment were made, the utility's meters would not be totally secure.
All of these prior art devices are obvious to the potential tamperer allowing him the opportunity to attempt to circumvent the devices. In addition, these same basic devices have been well known for more than 50 years, yet utility service diversion currently continues at an ever higher rate. It is clear, therefore, that even with a large investment in equipment, man power, and devices, the goal of preventing meter tampering and diversion of service has eluded the utility industry.
It is apparent that what is needed in the art are apparatus and methods for effectively, yet inexpensively, detecting and thereby preventing, equipment tampering. Particularly, it would be an advancement in the art if equipment could be easily secured in the field without the use of various types of expensive devices, such as connector nut collars and wires with lead seals. It would be a further advancement in the art if a means could be developed which would indicate that equipment has been tampered with without providing the tamperer advance notice of the way in which the equipment is secured. It would also be an advancement in the art if a method for securing meters were available which was internally secure in that a tamperer could not easily replace the device or means used to secure the meter. Such an invention is disclosed and claimed herein.